Which
Web Site Hosting Solution Is Right For You?
If you’re
a new or casual Webmaster and your site is non-revenue
generating with static HTML pages you generated
from boxed software, you probably are hosted on
a Linux server. This is the best solution overall
for you because Linux hosting costs less and you
hardly ever need to delve into the more advanced
functions. Server operating system becomes a non-issue.
All you need to do is to have a good host.
The
moment you decide you want your site to have more
complex features like members only area, e-commerce,
live help and so on, then the server operating
system might be important. Interactive features
rely on server side programs that process your
site visitor’s input and returns something
intelligent. There are many programs out there
but most common are ASP, PHP and Perl.
Windows
Desktop And Server Operating System
Just
because you run a windows desktop doesn’t
mean you must opt for Windows web hosting. This
is true vice versa. Whatever operating system
you use on your desktop has little to do with
your choice of hosts. As long as you understand
your FTP or web publishing software, your host
can be any operating system.
Website
Objectives
What
is important however is you know what you want
your site to do, what you want to offer on your
web site. This is what will ultimately lead you
to the type of hosting. As mentioned before, interactive
sites usually rely on ASP, PHP or Perl type languages.
Each programming language has it’s own strengths
and weaknesses and sometimes one can give you
something the other can’t although not very
often. PHP and Perl are Linux based and ASP Windows.
If
you opt to use ASP to power your web site, then
you’ll want to go with Windows hosting.
You might be told that ASP is available on Linux
hosting packages and that is true. But bear in
mind it might not work as well on Linux as they
would on Windows. This is also true the other
way around. While you can have PHP or Perl on
a Windows web host, they weren’t developed
for Windows and might not work as well. In fact,
there are often disclaimers about using these
languages on Windows servers.
Some
hosts have successfully implemented these programming
languages for the different platforms. Be very
clear in this case about the scripts you want
to use because server configurations for Windows
can be vastly different from Linux. This might
cause the script to fail or not function at it’s
full potential. It’s always best to go with
the operating system the language was built for.
Security
You’ll
most likely be told flatly Unix based servers
have better security. Mainly because these operating
systems have consistently been reliable while
Windows is a big target for exploitation. Hosting
wise it boils down to one thing. No matter how
secure the operating system is, your site cannot
be secure if your host has not configured it correctly
and isn’t updated often or swiftly.
In
speed and performance they both perform well.
Hardware is a big factor here. Again, look to
your host. Do they upgrade well ahead or do they
max out the resources before doing so?
In
conclusion, the key that decides if you should
have a Windows or Linux host is what you want
your site to do now and in the foreseeable future.
When
ready to search for a new host or upgrade, use
our site to get quotes in as little as 15 minutes.
Written
By HostVoice.net - HostVoice is a free online
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